Jack Colback (now a free agent)

[TRon]

Anyone who rates him is thick as fuck apparently, Championship  level is about where he is at imo. Yet Rafa continues his involvement, such a puzzle.

 

What was the score when he was subbed off? But really, if you rate him, why not just say why?

[Sho Time]

Another derisory performance from this waste of a shirt. Kept getting in Shelvey's way as well.

[U2]

He was fucking brilliant in defence today. Mad that people can't see it.

[Ikon]

He was absolutely horrible in the 1st half. Weak as piss and slow winning nothing. Much improved in the 2nd half where he won much more. Very limited player who should be backup at the very very best in this division.

[Guest neesy111]

Did well 2nd half.

[M4]

Didn't see the game but as I saw mentioned in the match thread... Playing the bottom of the Championship might be his level

[Disco]

Even I thought he was OK.

[Ikon]

Even I thought he was OK.

 

Same here, even i (only the second half though imo)

[Newcastle Fan]

He's weak as fucking piss, Brown was handling him as if he was a child.

[U2]

He's weak as fucking piss, Brown was handling him as if he was a child.

 

Erm, nope

[Twinport53]

He's had an average game against the current bottom team, who coincidentally finished around 21st the last 2 seasons. He's found his level. 

[Altamullan]

Even I thought he was OK.

 

just kidding. Firm but fair as usual.

[TRon]

That's the problem with watching games on a shit stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

[triggs]

That's the problem with watching games on a shit stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

After the first twenty minutes he completely nullified Brown, intercepted or tackled him loads of times

[U2]

That's the problem with watching games on a shit stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

After the first twenty minutes he completely nullified Brown, intercepted or tackled him loads of times

 

 

 

[TRon]

That's the problem with watching games on a shit stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

After the first twenty minutes he completely nullified Brown, intercepted or tackled him loads of times

 

That sounds unlikely unless he had help and was doubling up, but as I didn't have a first hand clear view of it I'll just have to take your word for it.

[huss9]

That's the problem with watching games on a s*** stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

After the first twenty minutes he completely nullified Brown, intercepted or tackled him loads of times

 

That sounds unlikely unless he had help and was doubling up, but as I didn't have a first hand clear view of it I'll just have to take your word for it.

 

rafa says he had to change formation from the original 4-3-3 to cope with brown

[TRon]

That's the problem with watching games on a s*** stream, most of the nitty gritty work done in midfield can get lost in the lag. If he had a good game I can only assume that meant screening the back four involving relatively little quick movement.

After the first twenty minutes he completely nullified Brown, intercepted or tackled him loads of times

 

That sounds unlikely unless he had help and was doubling up, but as I didn't have a first hand clear view of it I'll just have to take your word for it.

 

rafa says he had to change formation from the original 4-3-3 to cope with brown

 

I just read the quote and as I thought, he asked Diame to drop back to help curb Izzy Brown, presumably because Colback was unable to handle him alone.

[Sho Time]

He did absolutely nothing, Brown bullied him all over the pitch. I seen him play one or two forward passes which was a miracle in itself, but he was still anonymous, completely phased and bullied out the game and offered us f*** all apart from running around like a headless chicken. Anonymous is obviously an improvement to his usual involvement but lets not use it to mask the fact that he was absolutely s****.

 

Forgot to mention seen him running round like a headless chicken a few times w

[Ameritoon]

It's one thing to be a midfielder that can only make sideways passes, but to be one with no positional sense, can't tackle, not physical, no vision, no football sense or tactical ability is just pointless. he's awful. Can't wait until we can get rid.

[shintonsghost]

Him and Diame

 

The dream team

[Darth Crooks]

He was fine and that's about as good as you'll ever get. One of by best mates is a spenny macken and said as much.

[54]

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/newcastle-fundamentally-changed-jack-colback-11988528

 

Newcastle has fundamentally changed - Jack Colback on the Rafalution, Sunderland and winning again

 

Outside, it is blowing a gale so strong that the wi-fi at Newcastle United’s training ground is temporarily knocked out.

 

The windows in the canteen at the club’s Benton training base rattle and the wind cuts across the pitches where United have been doing double sessions under Rafa Benitez’s watch. But unusually for Newcastle in autumn, the mood around the club is calmer than it has been for years.

 

“I think the mood is a lot more positive,” Jack Colback – a man who has seen plenty in his two years at Newcastle – says.

 

“It feels like people are pulling in the same direction more now. The group we’ve got now here as players is very good and obviously the manager has tried to change things which he’s seen fit.

 

“Once the fans got over the disappointment of relegation they just want to see the team winning and playing good football and we’re managing to do that a bit more in this league.”

 

When Colback crossed the Wear-Tyne divide to sign for Newcastle on a free transfer in 2014, he signed for a different club.

 

A Premier League one, for starters: but one that was also buffeted by the intense criticism of Alan Pardew. So by October of his first year, United had retreated into their collective shell as the PardewOut campaign began to build momentum.

 

Last year came Steve McClaren’s attempt to turn Newcastle into a possession-first club (at just about the time the Premier League was being won by a team who turned the tenet that possession was nine tenths of the law on its head). Colback was given a different role – McClaren occupied a familiar one. This time last year, Newcastle had just been beaten 6-1 by Manchester City and the pressure on McClaren was building.

 

It is a nice change of pace, therefore, for Colback to reflect on the first 11 games looking for perfection rather than scraping for positives: “It’s been an OK start, not fantastic,” he says with admirable honesty. “We’ve lost games we shouldn’t but it’s made us and everyone else realise it’s not going to be easy.”

 

There is a buzz around the training ground and the dressing room that was absent last year and Colback admits that it felt like a “tough environment” for a team to forge bonds under McClaren.

 

They are winning more now but he also praises Benitez and the coaching staff for their “intensity”. “It is at just the right level,” he says.

 

It is here, on the training ground, where Benitez’s control has helped steady the ship. His experience might mean he is handling things in a different way, but it is the fact that the players know where they stand with a manager with real power who has been able to affect change that has helped.

 

With admirable honesty, Colback admits: “I think everything is there now to get the club back in the Premier League and to push on. I think maybe things weren’t ideal and there was a limit to how far the club could have gone but I think people have realised that it can’t be like that any more.

 

“Things seem to be getting done properly now. It’s a long-term goal of promotion and then to get the club back to where it needs to be but if we can do that, we can push on from there and see where we can go.

 

That has meant changes in the way the team are trying to play: perhaps less of an emphasis on keeping the ball and more on shape. “The big thing when Steve McClaren was here was possession – more than what it is with Rafa here. We played it well under Steve at times, just not enough.

 

“This year the quality isn’t as high so you expect to get more of the ball, especially at home where teams just sit off us a bit more to try and catch us on the break because they know the quality we have. We should be dominating the game more and we are – but we know what to do with the ball a bit more as well.”

 

Colback’s move from Sunderland to Newcastle was a controversial one. He played 115 games for Sunderland, the club where he was given his first-team breakthrough, and had options to join West Ham or Everton.

 

Instead he stayed in the North East, taking the “hardest option”, he admits. Despite relegation and the miserable derby days he’s experienced at the Stadium of Light since, he’s adamant that there has been no pause for thought.

 

“It’s not been ideal, it’s not gone to plan, so to speak. But that’s football, you can’t predict what is going to happen. I’m just happy to be at a massive club like this,” he says.

 

“(I have) no regrets. You can’t regret things in life. It was probably the hardest option to take in terms of spotlight and craic but I don’t pay much attention to that, or the crap that is said on social media.

 

“I’d have always thought about what it would have been like if I’d gone somewhere else. My family are from here, my kids get to stay local and having the family here is the important thing.

 

“It’s been fine. People probably sit back and pretend they’ve said this and that to me to their friends but I’ve heard nothing. Obviously it wasn’t ideal when I went to their place but it’s grown men – if they want to say this or that that’s their prerogative. I will do my job playing football and see how far it takes me.”

 

He picks fault with his own form, too. “I’ve been in and out a bit this season but hopefully when I’ve come in I’ve done my bit and I’m hoping to continue that.

 

“I want to get back to the level I was at then. First and foremost I want to take Newcastle back into the Premier League - I think it’s a duty if you were part of the group that took the club down to try and get it back to where it needs to be.”

[Conjo]

I want to get back to the level I was at

 

[Yorkie]

“(I have) no regrets. You can’t regret things in life. It was probably the hardest option to take in terms of spotlight and craic but I don’t pay much attention to that, or the crap that is said on social media.

 

Oof.